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Industrial Revival
The Industrial Revival, also known as the Second Industrial Revolution is a term coined by scholars in the NCR and Brotherhood of Steel in the late 2200s to refer to the revival of pre-war industrial production after the Great War. While it is often referred to as a singular event, multiple Industrial Revivals have occurred after the Great War in different parts of the world, over a period ranging anywhere from about 2100 to 2400. In North America, the most successful Industrial Revival began in California even prior to the founding of the New California Republic, when the Gun Runners, a guild of gun merchants who took control of and refurbished a pre-war arms factory. The pace of the Industrial Revival increased with the founding of the NCR and other post-war nation states such as Cascadia being major centers of industrial revival in North America. Similar revivals have also taken place in parts of Europe, with some of the earliest centers being the New Republic of Ireland, as well as Switzerland, who built an extensive bunker system which preserved pre-war technical knowledge and equipment, and even had underground factories for some essential items. In Asia, remains of the Japanese government gained a headstart in the industrial revival thanks to some suriving factories in Hokkaido, and other revivals later occurred elsewhere in Japan, as well as in parts of China and Korea. In some regions more remote from the bombs, the term "Industrial Revival" is something of a misnomer, as they were not hit by nuclear attacks, and the pre-war government managed to retain control of the country, and thus industrial techniques and pre-war scientific and engineering knowledge were preserved. A prime example of this is the Republic of Iceland, as well as in New Zealand, the Far Eastern Republic, and, to a lesser extent, some more developed South American countries. These countries experienced not so much an Industrial Revival as a post-war restructuring, in which the government temporarily While many pre-war products that cannot be produced due to lack of resources are nearly unheard of, these countries are capable of producing essentials items through recycling materials such as metals and plastics and by "mining" pre-war landfills. The exact nature of an Industrial Revival varies depending on the region. In some cases, the revival is enacted by force, as happened in the remains of the city of Pittsburgh, often known post-war as "The Pitt", where an ex-Brotherhood of Steel member turned raider revived the steel mills using slave labor. In others, it is the work of groups of entrepreneurial merchants and craftsmen who increasingly refurbish and make use of pre-war industrial tools, machines, and robots, as was the case of the Gun Runners in New California, sometimes receiving support from post-war nation states. While many factions embrace the idea of an Industrial Revival, it is not universally accepted, as seen with societies such as Caesar's Legion and The Celts, who actively oppose reindustrialization. Stages While the circumstances of an Industrial Revival may vary depending on region, scholars have differentiated five stages: Stage Zero Not considered a true stage in Industrial Revival, "Stage Zero" refers to a state seen in may places immediately after the bombs dropped, in which society has been essentially reduced to a pre-industrial level. With the collapse of government and society, pre-war factories are left abandoned as people are forced into struggle just to survive. During this period, practically all of the remaining population is reduced to subsistence agriculture to survive. People will still form societies, however, they are usually no larger than a city state of at most several hundred or a nomadic tribe of similar size. Stage One The first stage of the Industrial Revival looks a lot like "Stage Zero", however, with the population beginning to adjust to the realities of the post-war world. Farmers become accustomed to growing food in the post-war wasteland to the point that they can produce surpluses, and city states and settlements begin to unite against the raiders, bandits, and other threats that plague the wasteland. With food and safety being at least somewhat more secure, people in cities can devote more time to trade, with more specialists such as blacksmiths, gunsmiths, carpenters, brahmin ranchers, water merchants, etc setting up in business in cities. As a simple economy begin to develop, sometimes adopting a simple currency such as the bottle caps which were first used in California and later spread across North America, tradesmen begin attempting to refurbish pre-war industrial machinery such as welding equipment, presses, power hammers, industrial drills etc in an attempt to produce goods faster than their competitors. Eventually this reaches a point to where some better-preserved pre-war factories can be secured and refurbished, allowing true mass production to begin. Another factor that may have accelerate this trend is the exit of survivors of the Great War in bunkers and vaults, as well as pre-war ghouls, who bring with them technical knowledge needed to repair the machines of industry. Towards the latter part of this stage, simple stamped and cast metal tools, some chems, and ammunition can be produced, as well as some more complex items, like simple firearms such as copies of the British-made Sten submachine gun, can be mass-produced. Stage Two In this stage, manufacturing capacity is substantially increased, with pre-war scrap metals such as steel and copper being easily melted down and used to mass produce a myriad of simple to moderately complex items. Given the nature of post-war society, weapons and large (capable of supplying a settlement of greater than 100 persons) water purifiers, are some of the first items mass-produced, and are often used as a measure of industrial revival. By the time a society reaches this stage, most ballistic small arms, shoulder-mounted rockets, and simple artillery such as mortars and multiple-launch rockets can be manufactured. The founding of larger post-war nation states such as the NCR accelerates this period with government support. During this stage, some simpler parts for vehicles and machines such as generators can be manufactured, allowing a greater number of these machines to be refurbished, and some simple models of vehicles may even be constructed, albeit in small batches. Towards the later stages, most medicines, and even microfission and microfusion cells can be mass produced, though more advanced items, such as energy weapons, power armor and entire vehicles and aircraft (with the possible exception of wood-and-canvas biplanes, as used by the New Republic of Ireland) can be refurbished, but not produced entirely from scratch. Some Stage Two societies also generate electricity from wind turbine and make use of biofuels and carbon capture and recycling to produce hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide in the air, allowing older gasoline-burning vehicles and jet aircraft to remain viable even in the post-war period, where oil is rare. Examples of Stage Two societies include the New California Republic, Cascadia, the New Republic of Ireland, postwar Japanese State, and several others as of 2270. Stage Three The third stage of Industrial Revival is generally considered to be marked by the development of at least the theoretical capability to manufacture advanced items such as computer terminals, robots, laser weapons, and power armor, as well as most ground vehicles and some aircraft. It should be noted that this refers to a theoretical capability, and does not take into account the availability of resources, which may restrict production capabilities. For instance, the Brotherhood of Steel was at Stage Three as of 2270, however, with war with the NCR caused severe strain on their production capabilities, by 2281, the NCR had boxed the Brotherhood in to a few bunkers near Lost Hills and in the Mojave Wasteland, effectively cutting off their capacity to produce most items. Better examples of Stage Three production capabilities include the Enclave and later the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel, who are capable of mass producing AER-9 laser rifles, power armor, and, at least in the case of the Enclave, VB-02 Vertibird VTOL aircraft. If a postwar state that had attained Stage Two capabilities by 2250 (as was the case with the NCR and Cascadia, for instance) they were likely to attain Stage Three capabilities by 2350. Stage Four Stage Four represents a level of industrial technology roughly equivalent to the pre-war period, including the capacity to produce plasma weapons, aircraft, vehicles, and large nuclear reactors capable of powering a city. With some exceptions, such as space travel, Stage Four societies possess most of the technologies that existed in the pre-war period. Most of the Stage Four societies did not so much as revive from the war, but rather were developed countries were spared from the majority of the post-war devastation due to their distance from any nuclear detonations. The two most prominent examples of the Republic of Iceland and New Zealand, both of which suffered no nuclear detonations. While pre-war technological knowledge remains intact, production of some items is hampered by lack materials, for instance, some production of some electronics is possible, but limited by the fact that only recycled materials can be used. Nonetheless, both Iceland and New Zealand have made extensive use of their preserved technological knowledge to conserve resources, including recycling technologies which, driven by necessity, are actually slightly more advanced than those of the pre-war period. They also make use of advance energy conservation technologies, including new types of reactors capable of using what would otherwise be nuclear waste as fuel, as well as more advanced versions of carbon recycling, biofuel, and even hydrogen fuel technologies, allowing them them to be remarkably energy independent in spite of their isolation. In addition to Iceland and New Zealand, the Swiss Confederation, who survived not through isolation, but through an extensive network of bunkers and missile defense systems constructed over the 20th and 21st centuries, also are sometimes considered to be at Stage Four, though some estimates place them at a higher-level Stage Three. Stage Five Stage Five of the Industrial Revival is a state where a society has not only recovered completely from the war, but has actually advanced significantly beyond the pre-war world in multiple areas. While many factions, including the NCR, Cascadia, The Enclave, The Brotherhood of Steel, and New Vegas under Robert House all strive to reach Stage Five, it has only been achieved on a very small scale by one faction, the The Institute, a highly insular faction based in bunker beneath the ruins of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology in what was once Massachusetts. Examples of Stage Five technologies possessed by the Institute include teleportation and artificial humanoids which can pass for human, known as Synths. The closest societies to implementing Stage Five technology on a large scale are the Stage Four societies mentioned above, which some experts predict may be able to reach Stage Five at some point between 2350 and 2450. Category:Events Category:Technology